Gerry McNamara on his relationship with Adrian Autry, his love for Syracuse, his coaching goals
Gerry #Gerry
Syracuse, N.Y. – Gerry McNamara described it as “a whirlwind.”
He contrasted the emotional tug of seeing his former coach and boss step away from “something that you know he loved,” with the thrill of what a new Syracuse basketball regime might mean for a program stalled in neutral.
Those first couple days were both fraught with melancholy and inspired by what awaited.
McNamara said he and Adrian Autry talked before news surfaced last week about coaching changes at their alma mater. Autry officially was named Jim Boeheim’s successor last Wednesday. The university announced today that McNamara would be Autry’s associate head coach. Allen Griffin would remain as an assistant coach.
Autry said after his news conference last week that he expected McNamara and Griffin back on the SU staff. The university, at that point, was working through contracts with both men.
McNamara described his relationship with Autry as “an incredible, not just friendship, but professional relationship.” Their families are close. As former players and longtime coaches at SU, both are heavily invested in the program and want desperately to see it succeed.
“The opportunity to work for someone you believe in and trust and know you’re going to work closely with on every aspect of this was something that I’m just truly grateful for,” McNamara said. “Not a lot of professional situations have the respect among colleagues that we do for each other. So, I know how special that is in this industry, because that’s not always the case.”
Autry said during his introductory news conference Friday that he would take a day to enjoy his new job with family and then get to work. On Sunday, all three Syracuse coaches, plus director of basketball operations Pete Corasaniti sat together in a high school gym to watch Orange recruiting targets.
It was a show of solidarity, a visible first step to establish for prospects that Syracuse coaches were serious about their interest.
“Even though I’m the primary recruiter on a guy, now the head coach is there as well,” McNamara said. “And the plan hasn’t changed for certain guys that we’re going to go after. I think it was a nice statement for us to all be out together, right on the heels of Red’s press conference, to go out and be visible. That we’re going to be active. So yeah, it was a game we were already going to, but now we’re going to it in a heck of a different manner.”
Over this past week, McNamara’s focus shifted between recruiting and conversations with Orange players and their parents newly confronted with Boeheim’s retirement.
In the span of a few days, Syracuse players lost a heartbreaker to Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament, learned of a massive coaching change and then headed home for Spring Break.
SU coaches met with players before they left campus. Those conversations continue.
“We have kept tabs with pretty much every player,” McNamara said. “I’ve talked to a lot of parents. I’ve talked to a lot of our guys. Just staying in touch and reassuring them that they’re in good hands. The vision has changed a little bit but the relationships have not.
“That’s the most important thing – putting the trust back into us about why you came here in the first place. Giving the vision of how we want to play and who we want to be a part of it. Then we’ll have the opportunity to sit down with them again when they return from Spring Break this Sunday.”
SU’s recruiting philosophy, McNamara said, won’t change much with the new coaching regime. He expects the staff to pursue “every high-caliber” player in the Northeast. He expects to “get in on them early and develop relationships. Try to show them the love we have for this place and hopefully get them to feel the same way about it.”
Orange coaches, too, will continue to lean on relationships and consider prospects in different areas of the country. They will “take a swing,” McNamara said, at top-level players outside their traditional recruiting footprint.
McNamara was promoted to a full-time SU assistant coach in 2011-12 and has worked primarily with Orange guards. He is a beloved former Syracuse player, his grit and fire epitomizing his passion for the game. SU honored him at the last home game of the 2022-23 season by retiring his No. 3 jersey and the No. 1 jersey of teammate Hakim Warrick.
Both men, of course, helped Syracuse win a national championship in 2003.
McNamara’s rousing, ruminative acceptance speech before a cheering JMA Wireless Dome audience struck a chord for some. McNamara, puzzled by those reactions, said he was simply speaking the truth.
“People are reading too much into this, that I was auditioning for a head coaching job or that it was a farewell speech,” he said. “I thanked the former players that I had. I didn’t think I would be up there without them. I thanked the community because I love living here. The school district has been incredible to my family. I was trying to show my appreciation about how I felt about this place and the former players I played with.”
McNamara declined to discuss his interest in the SU head coaching job.
A few years ago, after Autry was named Syracuse’s associate head coach, he sat down for an interview with Syracuse.com and said he wanted one day to be a head basketball coach.
It’s the dream of most college basketball assistants, McNamara included.
“Of course,” he wants to be a head coach, he said. He feels good, he said, that he hasn’t skipped steps to achieve that goal and that he’s poured every ounce of himself into his Syracuse coaching duties.
He’s learned a lot. He’s developed his own voice. At some point, when the opportunity is right, he wants to be the man in charge.
“I love coaching here. I have a passion for being here. I think that’s rare in this industry,” he said. “I think a lot of people are just trying to get out as fast as they can and do their own thing. But our situations are different because we played here, we love it here and we want this place to be great.
“In that process, you learn a lot about yourself. You get to the point where I think you feel confident in terms of having your own thing, building your own thing and really moreso than anything, challenging yourself to go through that. I think that’s the exciting part, that you’ve prepared yourself for when the time comes. You’ve seen every scenario and you’re ready to tackle it head on.”
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